POLITICAL CAPITAL

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s ambitious new secretariat complex raises a cloud of controversy

- Amarnath K. Menon

On July 7, bulldozers and earthmovers began demolishing the 25.5 acre Telangana state secretariat complex, raising a cloud of dust and debris—and with it yet another controversy over Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s priorities in governance.

KCR’s plan to build a spanking new secretariat over the next two years, before the 2023 legislative assembly poll in the state, has met with fierce opposition. On June 29 this year, the Telangana High Court dismissed a batch of PILs (public interest litigation) filed between 2016 and 2019, opposing both the construction of a new secretariat complex and the demolition of the old one. The demolition work began a week later, on July 7, but was stalled on July 10, following a court order on a fresh PIL, asking if the state cabinet had met and resolved to demolish the complex and whether the Construction and Waste Management Rules, 2016, were being followed. At the time of writing, the court had issued a third stay order on the demolition till July 16.

Of the 10 office blocks of the existing secretariat, four are less than 25 years old. One of the older blocks— G block, also known as the Sarvahitha block—was constructed as the Saifabad Palace in 1888 by the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, Mahboob Ali Khan, and has served as the office of several chief ministers, including Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Jalagam Vengala Rao and N.T. Rama Rao. To permit its demolition, it was removed from the list of the state’s heritage buildings.